Training in Cape Verde (29 Feb – 4 Mar 2016)
Following a consultancy visit in Oct 2015, Dr Goncalo Lacerda (Portugal) was invited and supported by the Ministry of Health of Cape Verde and the AFCRN to provide a one-week training to 26 participants coming from different health institutions within Cape Verde. The goal was to train the future registrars in order to make possible the establishment of hospital-based cancer registries in each central hospitals (Agostinho Neto and Baptista de Sousa), and a population-based cancer registry under the direction of the MoH.
Basic training – Accra, Ghana (13-23rd June 2016)
The Accra Cancer Registry, in collaboration with research team at Stanford University, organised a 10 days basic training course in Accra from 13-23rd June. Objectives of the training were to equip cancer registry personnel with knowledge and skills in cancer registration which would enable them develop and strengthen their registries to generate high quality data to inform research and policy formulation in cancer control. 17 students from cancer registries in Kumasi, Accra, Calabar, Ibadan, Abuja and Liberia attended. External sponsors: NCI (via Stanford Uni) and ROCHE.
Basic training – Libreville, Gabon (13-22nd September 2016, re-scheduled to 6-17th March 2017)
A basic training course in French was organised for 10-12 cancer registry staff from 8 countries in Libreville, Gabon. International students are from Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Guinea, Congo-Brazzaville, Mali and Mauritania.
Due to the circumstances after the Presidential Election in the week before the course, in consultation with the local host (Director of the Cancer Institute), AFCRN postpone the workshop to early 2017.
CanReg advanced training course – Kampala, Uganda (10-14th October 2016)
This one week course, hosted by the Kampala Cancer Registry, entirely focused on the training of the use of CanReg 5. The course was led by Ms Gladys Chesumbai (Eldoret, Kenya) assisted by Francis Okongo (Gulu, Uganda). Nine students attended the course. They are from Kenya (Kisumu), Tanzania (Mwanza; Kilimanjaro), Mauritius, Zambia, Mozambique (Maputo), Uganda (Gulu; Mayuge).
Fellowship
24-29th October, Eric Chokunonga (Harare, Zimbabwe) visited Dr Parkin to complete the two studies: childhood cancer in Zimbabwe (1990-2014) and the three-centre TNM Essential study (contributing centres: Abidjan Cancer Registry, Malawi Cancer Registry and Harare Cancer Registry).
The TNM results were presented at the UICC World Cancer Congress in Paris, 1 Nov 2016.
Non AFCRN training courses
An intermediate level of training course was carried out at the National Health Laboratory Service (RSA National Cancer Registry) from 31 May – 10 June 2016. Over 20 people attended. The course was directed by Dr Elvira Singh, with participation of Dr Parkin, Eric Chokunonga (Zimbabwe) and Sarah Nambooze (Uganda).
Mrs Gladys Chesumbai (Eldoret, Kenya), Dr Guy N’Da (Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire) and Dr Goncalo Lacerda (Centro de Oncologia dos Açores, Portugal) attended the CanReg instructor training course in IARC, Lyon January 2016. They are often contracted as CanReg trainers for AFCRN training courses in Africa.